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THE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT MY SOUL

Time period early 1800’s. Place Lithuania. There were two families that were feuding over a piece of land. A woman from one family puts a curse on the other family. Her name was Gheta she was known to have special powers. Some even called her a witch. She went to talk to Antonia from the other family. Antonia was not afraid of Gheta she did not believe any of the stories she was told about Gheta. Many women in the village had told Antonia, all was true and to beware and not to make Gheta angry. Land was important to these people it was a symbol of wealth. Gheta tried to explain that the land had belonged to her father and since he passed away it now belonged to her. Antonia told her that the land had always been in her family and her husband Otto and her were not giving a worthless bum like her husband Gerlog and his worthless son’s any land. ” You call my son’s worthless?”

” Yes and your husband too.”

” You BITCH.” Gheta said.

” Get out of my home.” Antonia replied.

” I curse you.” said Gheta. ” Your husband and all of his brothers will die within one year of each other. All the first son’s will die within one year of each other, forever. None will ever live to see their 70th year. Until the land is returned to my family.”

” Go to Hell.” said Antonia.

Gheta stared at Antonia her blue eyes turn almost black and a shiver went down her spine. She got up from the table and opened the door and told Gheta to get out. As Gheta left she looked at Antonia and said. ” You are making a mistake, and you will ruin your family for generations.”

“Hmpf,” was Antonia’s only reply, but the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

Neither family ever spoke to each other again.

The years passed Antonia’s first child Kurt got married and within a year Antonia was a grandmother to a beautiful baby boy. Her son and his wife named him Otto after his grandfather. The family celebrated.

Two years later Antonia’s husband died. Antonia was grief stricken. Her son Kurt and his family moved in with Antonia to work the land and keep it fruitful.

One year to the day Otto’s brother Yan died. The year after that his brother Edmund died.

Antonia was beside herself, the curse was coming true. She went to see Gheta to beg her to take the curse off the family. When she arrived at Gheta’s house she was told Gheta had died that morning.

Antonia’s son, and both of his cousins who were the first son’s of their family died within one year of each other before the age of 70.

Antonia told her son about the curse and begged him to give the land to Gheta’s family, but he told her to stop being superstitious and he was not giving the family land away for such nonsense. She was ashamed and carried that curse with her to the grave.

To this day any male that is related by blood to Antonia and her husband Otto all have died before they were 70 and if they had any brothers the brothers died within one year of each other. All of their first son’s died before they were 70 and all within one year of each other.

In the year 2000 someone did a genealogy of their family and discovered the story written by Antonia in her bible all those years ago. They traveled to Lithuania to find the land and even if they had to buy it they would. It turns out that the boarders were changed and the land could not be purchased. I know this because I am part of that family.

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5 thoughts on “THE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT MY SOUL”

Quite an interesting story. Enjoyed reading it.
I did discover some small mistakes.
For example this sentence:
Antonia was beside herself the curse was coming true.
I missed a komma, between herself and the curse.
Or you could make it two sentences.
Or you could put the word because in between.
I hope you don’t mind I mention that.
It’s just that my native isn’t English and I try to improve it.
That’s why I pay attention so much to other people’s texts. 🙂

Hi Pat, what a fascinating story! I like the picture you paint of a matriarchal, agrarian society coloured by superstition and fear. Gheta and Antonia are powerful characters, and the bitter feud between their families over a piece of land certainly caught my imagination.

A couple of queries: (1) Wasn’t the son who moved in with Antonia following her husband’s death called Kurt, not Otto? (2) Did you really mean seventieth year (i.e. turning 69) or the attainment of age seventy?

Now then – true or false? Well, I could believe the story came from folklore or family legend. But factual – no. It’s too fantastical that Gheta’s curse was enacted so faithfully. Only witchcraft could account for that, and I don’t believe in witchcraft.